Miscellaneous. 431 



Greenland mammal, led the author to examine the collection of 

 Ascarides in the University Museum at Copenhagen, where he found 

 about forty bottles of these worms obtained from seals, and about 

 twenty bottles of specimens derived from toothed whales. 



I. Ascarides from Seals. 



0. Fabricius* enumerates three species of Ascarides in Greenland 

 seals, namely Ascaris pJioca',, hijida, and tubifera ; but his descrip- 

 tions are insufficient. Rudolphi f described the worm that he had 

 the opportunity of examining under the name of A. oscidata ; and 

 this was identified by Schneider witli an Ascaris from Phoca grcen- 

 landica, which he fully described. Baird J described Ascaris similis 

 from an antarctic seal, but not sufficiently for the distinction of the 

 species. 



The forty bottles of Ascarides from seals, mostly from Greenland, 

 in the museum contained a mixture of two different species, which, 

 however, could hardly be distinguished by the naked eye. 



1. Ascaris oscidata, Rud., occurred in twenty-three collections, as 

 follows : — from Phoca groenlandica (10) from Greenland and Ice- 

 land ; P. barhata (2) from Greenland; Halicluerus gri/pus {3), no 

 locality recorded ; Cystophora cristata (1) from Greenland ; and 

 TrichecJius rosmarus (2) from Greenland ; and also (5) from un- 

 named seals at the Fasroe Islands, Iceland, and Greenland. The 

 number of worms in an individual seal amounted sometimes to 200 

 or 300. The pi'oportion of males to females was about as two to 

 three. The females attain a length of 80 millims. and the males of 

 60 millims. The red streak observed by Schneider at the base of 

 the lips is not constant; the author never found it. 



2. Ascaris decipiens, sp. n. This worm belongs to Schneider's 

 first group, which also includes A. marifima, and in which the lips 

 are denticulate and there is no intermediate lip. The lips, which 

 are nearly equal, have in front a pair of broad rounded lobes, 

 directed obliquely sideways, separated on each side by a notch from 

 the rest of the lip; the teeth form three arched lines, one in the middle 

 and one on each lobe. Of the caudal papillne of the male the three 

 hindmost are conical and diminish in length posteriorly ; they are 

 followed by three short processes on each side behind the anus. 

 Those before the anus increase in length to the seventh or eighth 

 and are arranged in a single row. 



This species occurred in twenty-one collections — from Phoca 

 groenlandica (4), P. barbata (4), P. hispida (1), P. vitidina (6), 

 Cystophora cristata (I), and Trichechns rosmarus (1), all from Green- 

 land : and also in three unnamed seals from the Fieroe Islands, 

 Iceland, and Greenland. The species has also been found in a 

 Phoca vitalina from the west coast of Slcsvig. In one collection 

 the number of woims was about 200, in the proportion of one male 



* Fauna Grcenlandica, 1780, p. 272. 



t Wiedemann's Archiv, Bd. ii. St. 1 (ISOl). 



\ Catalogue of Species <if Ento,"^oa, V'<i'>'), p 10. 



